Global internet hit by ‘biggest cyber attack in history’

The global internet has been hit by what is being described as the biggest cyber attack in history.

Cyber security experts have seen the internet around the world being slowed down, with services like Netflix the worst hit.

The cyber breach could potentially also hit banking and email systems, with five cyber police forces investigating the attack. The BBC says there are now widespread congestion risks, which is causing jams in critical online infrastructure.

The issue reportedly stems from a row between an anti-spam group and a web hosting company, which is causing the slowdown.

UK and Switzerland based group Spamhaus which uses filters for unwanted emails, added Dutch company Cyberbunker to its blacklist.

Hosting company Cyberbunker follows a strategy of hosting any website, apart from those relating to terrorism or child pornography, and according to a Spamhaus spokesperson, it was hit with a DDoS attack shortly after blacklisting the hosting company.

Spamhaus servers were reportedly hit with up to 300 billion Gbps of data, making it the largest cyber attack in history.

A Cyberbunker source has since told the BBC that Spamhaus “was abusing its power and should not decide what goes and does not go on the internet”.

DDoS attacks hits targets with a vast amount of traffic, and slows down access to the website in question.